Firefighters Rescue Kitten From Pipe

One Valley kitten had a happy ending Friday afternoon thanks to a group of caring schoolchildren and firefighters at Challenger Charter School in Glendale.

According to Daniel Valenzuela of the Glendale Fire Department, the children were outside the school at the beginning of the day when they heard a faint mewing from a kitten stuck eight feet underground inside of an eight-inch drain pipe on school grounds.

After notifying teachers of the sounds coming from the pipe, the Glendale Fire Department was called to try to extract the kitten from the pipe.

Glendale firefighter Kari Lejoie said that when the firefighters arrived, they used a long, semi-rigid wire to nudge the kitten out of the pipe.

Lejoie said that the kitten appeared to be only two to three weeks old, and seemed to be fine except for a potential eye infection. She also said that the kitten would be taken to a veterinary office later in the day for a full checkup.

“It’s just a feel-good story,” Valenzuela said of the rescue.

He added that he feels it is important for children to see firefighters in the aspect of a generally innocent rescue. He said that many times when firefighters are portrayed or displayed on television it is most often during a tragic event.

The children said that they named the kitten “Smokey” for his gray color. They also begged to keep him as a classroom pet.